


Stark Nanny

by Sofiel



Series: Papa Tony Doesn't Know Best [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Babies, F/F, F/M, Families of Choice, Family Secrets, Gen, Humor, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-11
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-25 02:13:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/634019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sofiel/pseuds/Sofiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Side story to Easy Fix. Harry getting a nanny and her experiences as the Stark Nanny. Mentions of femslash. Scenes that will not appear in Easy Fix.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stark Nanny

The seventh floor of the almost built Stark Tower was full to the brim with a full host of women and men ranging from their teens to their late sixties. The interviews had been scheduled all on the same day because Tony had assumed that not a lot of people would actually want the job or would be qualified for it. Case in point being that all the teenagers that had come to get the job of 'Stark Nanny' would summarily be thanked for coming and shown the door because they were too young for the job.

The job of Stark Nanny was something to be taken serious. Even though Tony had put flyers—done in marker and with several grease stains from when he had been working on revamping the suit—all over the research and development department on the 30th floor. (Due to the fact that Tony had a vicious argument with one of several of the builders and a contractor on how to make the work place perfect so that everything met code and his scientists weren't going to end up getting blown up by mistake, the R&D department wasn't fully ready on the top ten floors, like Tony had planned, and had to take residence on the lower floors until they could fully move). It had been done half-jokingly because Tony trusted his staff when it came to things like making bombs and not blowing up half of New York, so they'd probably pick a great nanny that wasn't evil for his kid. At least that was the thought in his head when he put the flyers up. Several people had entered in the last hour that Tony wouldn't have left alone with a house cat let alone Harry.

Pepper wanted to have someone that was skilled enough with children, a toddler in this case, but that wasn't too eye-catching that the person would want to 'take care' of Tony instead of Harry. She had set up several online requests and had called up several nanny services around the country to see who could be the perfect person to take care of Harry. For all her reservations when she had first met the green-eyed toddler she had become quite attached to the little monster. She already had a framed photo of Harry on her desk in her office in the North Building. Harry and Tony had been eating pasta when Harry decided to just use his hands instead of his eating utensils and shoved a fistful of spaghetti in his mouth. Tony had taken a picture of the grinning, saucy face and sent a copy to Pepper.

Tony didn't want an old lady to be the nanny because Harry enjoyed being carried and hugs and little old ladies can break easily. Tony can attest to the breaking point of little old ladies. He had grown up with a whole slew of nannies, most quit before the month was up and others were too evil to be even mentioned. He had sat next to Pepper at the large desk that had all their notes and piles of resumes for the perfect nanny making sure to eliminate anyone over the age of fifty that didn't look fit enough to take care of a rambunctious eighteen-month old toddler. He ignored that Pepper had eliminated all the hot possibilities within five minutes of their interview. Though he had agreed that one time the reporter had come into the room and had asked for an interview as to why Stark Industries was hiring nannies. Rhodey had taken offense at it as much as Tony had and politely asked the reporter to leave while they conducted the interviews. (The next day the papers were filled with scandalous stories of Tonny impregnating Pepper, a princess from a country he didn't even know existed, the reporter, and three Playboy bunnies).

Rhodey was mostly there to make sure that Pepper and Tony kept their heads in the endgame. He just wanted what was best for Harry and as godfather that included picking the perfect nanny. If the decision had been left to Tony he'd end up with the least experienced person but with the best assets, which would start an argument with Pepper and another possible break up. If the decision had been left to Pepper she'd pick the person that was the most experienced but that would do the job automatically and wouldn't much care for Harry as much as she would the job. Rhodey hadn't put out any flyers or called anybody about the nanny job but that was mostly because he couldn't think of anyone that wasn't any of his former troop mates or that he hadn't slept in barracks with. They were all amazing soldiers but he wouldn't trust any of them with changing a diaper or to take care of Harry due to the fact that most of them weren't knowledgeable with kids and the others had kids of their own and wouldn't be able to do it themselves.

In the end Tony and Rhodey ended up sitting on either side of Pepper behind the large desk while person after person came into the room and told them just how qualified they were for the job. After the fifth teenager in a row, Pepper had to call Lidia, the secretary on the seventh floor that was dealing with the influx of interviewees, and ask her to tell the teenagers that were there to go home because they weren't what she was looking for. There had been a bit of yelling but that had been straightened out right away with a few choice words and a thank you for coming.

"How about Laura Anderson?" Tony asked the room in general as he showed everyone the lengthy resume. "She sounded like she knew what she was talking about."

Rhodey took the resume from Tony's unresisting fingers and went over it again. Laura Anderson had been a good candidate, though Rhodey was a bit concerned for her lack of knowledge on basic CPR and medical emergency. As far as he was concerned a nanny should know how to deal with a choking kid or a drowning kid since kids put everything in their mouths.

"She doesn't have CPR certification," Rhodey said and put her resume on the 'no' pile that was steadily getting bigger and bigger. "I think the ones that don't have CPR certification should be an immediate no. It's simple enough to get the certification for it and anyone that's going to be working with kids should at least know how to do that."

"I agree," Pepper said. She had the maybe pile in front of her and quickly looked through the pile and took out several resumes. "I thin that Tony was right about the older nannies not being the right choice because Harry is really active and I don't think an elderly woman would be able to keep up with him."

"I liked Susan Martin," Tony said as he looked over another one of the resumes and the questionnaire that Lidia had scrounged up in order to have the interviewees doing something. "She had one of the flyers that I put up in the R&D department so she more than likely got it from someone that already works here."

Pepper rolled her eyes and took the resume from his unresisting fingers. "Of course you'd like her. She was the one in the dress and the heels, right?"

"She is the most qualified that isn't an elderly woman, a teenager, or someone that just isn't right for the job," Rhodey pointed out, flipping through the papers to look at all the information that the woman had given. "She won't be the least bit interested in Tony since she has a fiancée that works for Stark Industries in R&D."

"Really, which one?" Tony asked as he moved more papers aside. He took out his phone and waited patiently for Rhodey to continue talking.

"A Doctor Cecilia Adams," Rhodey said with a bright smile plastered on his face. "She won't be the least bit interesting in what you have to offer since she's not interested in men. That's a good thing. She won't get distracted by Tony and she'll take good care of Harry."

"We'll give her a week trial and if she does as expected and Harry likes her we'll keep her on," Pepper said with a satisfied nod. "If she doesn't work out after the background check and the week trial then we'll pick someone else. At this point we just have to have someone taking care of Harry because we're always so busy with the construction going on. It won't be as worrying in a month or two but at this point, I'd feel better if he had someone to spend the day with that wasn't JARVIS or another robot."

"What's wrong with my robots?"

"They're not the best for raising a kid," Rhodey said as he laughed at Tony. "There's nothing wrong with them other than to use them to take care of Harry isn't something that should be used in the long run. It'll emotionally stunt Harry and you'll end up with an angry teenager that does everything in his power to revel against everything you don't like."

"We gotta make sure that whoever we do agree to be the nanny that she has a passport, too," Tony added. "We travel a lot for the company and even if I want to spend time with Harry all the time it's probably not a good idea to let him get in contact with the assholes of the business world. Half the time I don't want to deal with them so a little kid that can barely understand half the words coming out my mouth is probably not going to deal with them either."

Getting up from the desk and arranging the resumes into the different piles, one for Lidia to deal with, the maybe pile and Susan Martin's resume.

*

Susan Martin, Marty or Martin if anyone asks, didn't think much about her new task of being Tony Stark's nanny. Well, not a nanny taking care of Tony Stark, but rather a nanny taking care of Tony Stark's new adopted son. She had had to sign a whole bunch of papers telling her that she couldn't tell reporters about the existence of Harry. She had understood it since she figured that anyone that knew about the child would more than likely kidnap the child for some sort of personal gain or to blackmail Mr. Stark.

She hadn't expected to be called back for the one-week trial of taking care of little Harry but she was eager enough to work. Marty hadn't been the only one with experience the day of the interview, in fact, bar the teenagers she didn't have a chance against the professional looking women that had appeared. She had made sure to point out that she was child CPR satisfied as well as first aid certified.

"Hi, I'm Susan Martin. Ms. Potts and Mr. Stark are expecting me," Marty said cheerfully to a woman handling the reception area on the first floor. She had been called and just told to announce herself downstairs to the receptionist where she'd be told where to go afterwards.

"Right, take the elevator at the end of the hallway," the receptionist said as she turned around to show Marty where the elevators were. "I called down the elevator and it should send you straight to Mr. Stark's floor. You don't have to push any buttons or anything."

Marty nodded her head and thanked the receptionist. The elevator ride was quiet and Marty gave Mr. Stark mental thumbs up for not having annoying elevator music and crappy carpet like her own building had. She, of course, couldn't complain much about her building since it was built pre-war and no one used the elevator unless they were desperate and wanted to get stuck in it. For all that she lived in a splendidly nice neighborhood, elevator maintenance could leave a lot to be desired.

Once the elevator reached the floor that it needed to, the elevator doors opened to the grinning face of Tony Stark with grease smudges on his cheek and forehead and a tablet in one hand.

"Ms. Martin," he started as he stepped forward to shake Marty's hand.

"It's just Marty, Mr. Stark," Marty corrected as she shook his hand. "There were too many girls with the name Susan in my town so I went with Martin and Marty most of my life," she explained quickly.

"Okay, cool," he said and then pointed behind him. "So, you get to meet Harry now. He just ate breakfast, mostly wore it, really, but the Internet tells me that that's normal for toddlers."

Marty laughed as he turned the tablet around for her to see the website that Tony was perusing. "It's normal for little kids to spread their food around when they're eating it, yes. They don't learn to not spread food all over their face once they're five or so, and even then it's a stretch. Kids love to play with their food and it's how they learn to not do it later on, I guess."

"You've taken care of toddlers before?" Tony asked and motioned her to a white couch. "On the questionnaire you said that you were the youngest of four and that you took care of your nieces and nephews from a very young age."

Marty nodded her head and regretted it when the bun she had put her hair up on began to loosen. "I've been taking care of kids since I was ten years old. When I went off to college I was sixteen so I couldn't get a job that would work around my school schedule so I did a lot of babysitting for classmates and for teachers. During the summers I was a lifeguard so I had to get certified in first aid and CPR."

"You basically answered all my health questions when you answered the questions on the paper," Tony said and waved the aforementioned papers slightly. "Harry is a bit special and I don't want anything to happen to him. I have an entire list of numbers for you to call if something happens at any time. I don't want you to hesitate if something happens; JARVIS will alert me if something happens to Harry but I want to make sure that you have the list."

"My granddaddy taught me to memorize the numbers to the CDC since I was little," Marty said with a grin as she took the list and pointed them out. "He was a bio-chemist and he always wanted me to be prepared for anything that could happen."

"Smart man," Tony said with a nod. "I can get behind a man that memorizes the numbers to the CD—" he paused and looked behind the couch. "Okay, here's Pepper and Harry now."

Marty turned around just in time to watch the messy haired toddler throw himself at Tony. He gave a squeal of delight and wrapped his arms around the man's neck like a lifeline and began to coo in delight and baby talk. Marty couldn't help the snort-giggle that escaped as Harry proceeded to kiss Tony all over the face and continued to baby talk.

"He wanted to play with the rubber ducks again," Pepper said as she walked around the couch and sat on the leather armchair facing the coffee table. "I don't know if it's the warm water or the toys but he's obsessed with taking baths."

"Maybe he just likes being naked," Tony suggested brightly as he sat Harry on his lap. "Harry, this is Marty. She'll be taking care of you. Say hello."

Harry eyed Marty with his bright green eyes and smiled but leaned further into Tony.

"Hi there, Harry," Marty greeted with a wave. Harry waved back with a toothy grin. "How are you?"

"Baff, baff, baff!" Harry squealed, windmilling his arms around in the way that most little kids do in their excitement. "Toy, bababa pwash. Baff!"

"Really? You were taking a bath with your toys? You splashed everywhere?" Marty asked with an excited grin, leaning forward to make eye contact with Harry. "Which one is your favorite toy to have in the bath?"

Harry blinked at her and then looked up at his father in confusion. "E-phant!"

"You like your elephant the most?" Marty asked with a bright smile. "That's great. I love elephants but my favorite animals have always been penguins. Have you ever seen a penguin, Harry?"

"No," Harry shook his head and leaned forward as if he were about to hear a whispered secret from Marty.

"They're black and white and some of them even have colorful feathers," Marty said excitedly.

"Bwack!" Harry cheered and put his hands on his head. He pointed at the blue glow coming out of Tony's black t-shirt and grinned. "Boo!"

Marty clapped her hands and cheered Harry on. "You know your colors, Harry. That's right, your hair is black and the reactor glows blue! You're a very smart little boy, aren't you?"

"Yay!" Harry clapped his own hands.

"I haven't seen him this excited talking to a new person since I met him," Pepper said as she clapped along with Harry. "Within hours of meeting Tony he wouldn't leave his side and shied away from anyone that wasn't Tony and Tony's best friend."

"I hope that's a good thing," Marty said with wan smile towards Pepper. "I think he's not freaking out right now because you're here right now with him. It'll probably be a different story once you're out of the room. Separation anxiety is normal, of course, but he'll get used to it eventually. Sometimes some kids don't even notice that their parents are gone at all."

"I'll only be a floor down if you need anything from me," Tony said and pointed towards the elevator. "Pepper is going to be across the street in the North Building doing CEO things. JARVIS will be monitoring Harry to make sure nothing's wrong with him but I gave you my list of emergency contacts if anything happens."

"Come here, little guy," Marty motioned for Harry to come closer and away from Tony and he widened his eyes and gripped at Tony's shirt like Marty had just suggested to rip his arms off. "It's just for a little while. I'll take good care of you until Daddy comes back upstairs and we can play some games and it'll be really exciting, I promise."

"No."

"Yeees," Marty nodded her head to try and convince Harry. "Just for a little while."

"No want."

"We can compromise if you want," Marty said and sat back in her chair, crossing her arms and cocking her head to the side in thought. "How about, if we stay together for a little while you and Daddy can have lunch together? That sounds like a great compromise, right?"

"No!"

"You know this isn't really your choice," Marty frowned and shook her head. "Daddy will go to work and you spend the day with me and we'll play games. I'll even let you pick out the games because I'm really bad at picking games and half the time I pick games I end up losing because I don't know the rules," she paused and blinked at Harry. "I'm rambling again, aren't I? So, it's decided then!" She clapped her hands together startling Harry into leaning back against Tony. "We'll play until lunch time."

*

By the time lunchtime had come around Harry has managed to get the hang of being away from his parents. He managed to give a long tour of his bedroom, and the bathroom where he uses a 'big boy potty' while not crying over his father's departure. Ms. Potts stayed for an hour, walking behind them to make sure that everything was going okay with Harry but in the end she left to go to her office as well and Marty and Harry ended up alone in the kitchen.

Marty wasn't used to having an entire building to go wild in when she was babysitting and it was a new experience for her, especially when Harry proceeded to ignore her and make his way to the pit where the couch was in with the nice fluffy carpet. Marty was shocked as he hadn't done anything to show that he was interested in playing or in reading or in anything a normal toddler would. Harry just laid down on the carpet with an ugly looking elephant toy in his arms and a white owl plush sitting on the armchair that Ms. Potts had been sitting on in the morning.

"Harry, would you like me to read you a story?" Marty asked as she sat to the side of where he was so that he only had to shift his head to the side to see her. "You have lots of books we can read; would you like to read one with me?"

"Kays," Harry said as he sat up. He watched Marty as she rushed to one end of the room to pick out a book from the bookshelf that had children's books, law books, and books on physics, chemistry, robotics and a bunch of other things that were probably above her head.

"Do you want to pick a book with me?" she asked and motioned Harry towards the bookshelves. She grinned when Harry toddled over with his elephant in his arms and crouched down next to her to look at the books. "Which one do you like?"

He pointed to a colorful book in between _Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid_ and a battered copy of _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_. Harry slowly inched out the book titled _Tyrannosaurus Math_ and then scooted another one just titled _Math: A Book You Can Count On!_ out of the bookshelf as well.

"You like numbers, then?" Marty asked and grabbed both books in one hand and picked up Harry with the other. He gave a startled yelp and grabbed for Marty's shoulder with one arm while hugging his elephant closer to his chest. "I wasn't reading books like this when I was your age that's for sure… probably for the best, though. It was bad enough that I liked science as much as I did."

As soon as Marty opened _Math_ she had to do a double take on what exactly it was and smiled to herself at the thought of Tony Stark teaching his son about the different things that are part of math through anthropomorphized zeroes, infinity signs, multiplications signs and shapes. Harry settled on her lap and just waited calmly while she got the book ready, occasionally rubbing her arm and cooing at the cardigan she was wearing.

" _Chapter 1: Number Bunch…_ " Marty read as Harry settled back and put his elephant on his lap to wait out the story.

Out of all the kids that Marty had taken care of before, Harry had to be the most well behaved one she had ever had the pleasure to be around. He listened when she was telling stories and only occasionally interrupted when he saw colors he knew the names to or when he had gone a couple of minutes without putting his hands on the sweater and muttering about it being soft. He'd calmly ask "What is?" and point at things on the page when he didn't understand something and he'd muddle his way through words he couldn't pronounce, which was mostly all of them but Marty was patient. He also didn't go around kicking and screaming like someone was out to kill him when he was bored or tired of something.

Harry mumbled, looking up at her while she was reading about volume.

"You're tired?" Marty asked and put the book aside to settle Harry better on her lap. "How about we get a snack and then we'll take a nap? By the time you wake up it'll be lunchtime and you can have lunch with Daddy."

Harry nodded but he looked too tired to be an active participant in the conversation. There was a small Tupperware container with the name Harry on a sticky note in the fridge that was filled with apple slices. Ms. Potts had explained before she left that Harry didn't like the red apples, but Tony liked to sneak them into his snack time, so his container was filled green and yellow apple slices.

"We've got apples here," Marty said while she shook the container in front of Harry. Harry quickly grabbed the container and laughed. "Do you want something to dip your apples in? There's yogurt here. I like apples with yogurt or peanut butter, but I don't think there's any peanut butter around here."

Harry cooed and waved the container up and down while Marty took out the yogurt and placed it in small plastic container in the shape of a frog's head. Harry squealed again and rattled his apples while Marty tried to find a comfortable enough seat for Harry that would actually let him reach the counter.

"Let's just put you up here," she said with a sigh when the chairs turned out to be too short for Harry's small stature. Harry didn't seem the least bit against being put on the counter as the apple container was quickly opened and Harry dipped one slice into the yogurt.

"Mmm. Yum."

"That's right, it's yummy," Marty said with a smile as she watched Harry slowly nibble his way down his apple slice. He offered Marty some and she made believe she was biting the apple with exaggerated munching noises and "yum" thrown in when Harry eyed her like she was crazy. "No, it's really good, honest. My mama used to do this for me all the time when I was little and didn't know how to eat by myself. It's good that you're eating fruits at such a young age; most kids are real picky about things like that. You're a really amazing little fella, Harry. Don't ever change."

Harry offered the last slice of apple after he took one bite from it and made a face.

"You didn't like that one?" Marty asked and laughed when Harry made another face and offered the apple slice again. "I suppose we should waste not, want not," she said and took the apple between her teeth and out of Harry's tiny fingers. "Yuuum." Harry clapped with a bright smile as he repeated 'yum' back at her.

For the first half of the first day working as the Stark Nanny nothing was too bad. Harry behaved and bar the not wanting to separate from his father at the beginning he was rather calm. Marty has had worse people to work for and with.


End file.
